Railway car wall



April 20, 1937. G. e. GILPIN RAILWAY GAR WALL Filed June 17, 1935 fivuenfor. Gan/7 {0/0 A ameg Patented Apr. 20, 1937 PATENT OFFICE RAILWAY GAR- WALL Garth G. Gilpin, Riverside, Ill., assignor to Union Metal Products Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application June 17, 1935, Serial No. 26,968

3 Claims.

The invention relates to railway freight cars and more particularly to side and end walls for open top railway cars, such as hopper and gondola cars, though the construction is adaptable for walls of house cars, such as box, automobile and refrigerator cars. The construction is also adaptable for use as roofs, floors, hopper doors and side doors for railway cars. A roof or a floor comes within the meaning of the term wall as used in the specification and claims herein.

Railway freight cars are generally designed so that the side walls are girders or trusses to carry part of the weight of the lading and the car itself to the body bolsters which transmit such load to the trucks. Such side walls also retain the load in the car. It is desirable to make the inside horizontal width of the car as wide as possible to increase the cubical .capacity of the car but the outside width of the car is limited by tunnels and projections adjacent the track so it becomes imperative to make the side wall as thick horizontally as possible consistent with strength requirements.

Open top railway cars are frequently built with the vertical walls comprising spaced apart upper and lower frame members connected at spaced intervals by vertical posts with panels filling the spaces between the posts and frame members, which construction forms a girder and retaining 39 Wall. It has been proposed to bulge the central parts of these panels outwardly to increase the cubical capacity of the car, such as shown in the Hart Patent No. 1,623,591 of April 5, 1927.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a wall for a railway car wherein the major or intermediate portion of the wall sheet (or sheets) is adjacent the exterior plane of the vertical post or stake or upper chord of the wall and to form that part of the stake within the lading compartment of the car so that they reduce the carrying capacity of the car the minimum amount and to provide the part of the stake within the car with stiffening means against lateral deflec- 45 tion and to associate the stake and the stiffening means with the side sheets so that the stake can be removed from the car without disturbing the relation of the side sheets with the upper and lower chords respectively.

50 Another object is to arrange and. form the above mentioned stiffening means so as not to interfere with a free discharge of the lading.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 shows the outside of a part of the wall 55 of a railway car incorporating the invention.

Fig. 2 shows the interior view of the construction shown in Fig. 1.

In the form of my invention illustrated I have merely shown spaced apart upper chord 2 and lower chord 4 and one of the posts 6 with parts 5 of the adjacent wall sheets 8 showing how these elements are associated and arranged to obtain the objects of the invention.

Each wall sheet 8 extends between and is connected to the upper (2) and lower (4) chords 10 respectively and a space I0 is provided between the vertical edges of the adjacent sheets. Each wall sheet comprises an intermediate portion II adjacent the exterior plane of the upper chord 2 and an upper part l2 sloping upwardly and in- 15 wardly for attachment to the upper chord 2, and in some constructions, each sheet is also provided with a lower part l4 sloping downwardly and inwardly for attachment to the lower chord,

The stake 6 extends between and is secured to 20 both the upper and lower chords and is positioned on the outside of the wall sheets. Each stake comprises a web l6, lateral sheet attaching flanges l8 and lateral stiffening flanges 20 adjacent the inner margin of the stake. These flanges I820 reinforce the stake as a column and also as a beam. The overall width of the stiffening flanges 2020 is less than the space I 0 between the vertical edges of the adjacent wall sheets so that the stake 6 can be removed from the chords (or from the car) without disturbing the wall sheets; that is, without removing them from the chords or from the car.

If the stiffening flange extended to the junction 24 of the upper part I2 of the wall sheet with the upper chord 2 a pocket would be formed which would interfere with the free discharge of the lading when the car is turned upside down in an unloading machine, therfore, the stiffening 40 flanges terminate and merge into the web of the stake (at 26) short of said junction 24 or in other words, a substantial distance short of the chord 2 so as to provide a freer discharge of the lading. When the wall sheet is provided with a lower inwardly inclined part I4 I also preferably terminate and merge the stiffening flange 20-20 into the web short of the junction of the lower inclined part I4 with the lower chord 4 (at 28) so as to provide a freer discharge of the lading through the usual hoppers in the lower part of the car.

I also preferably dispose each of the stiffening flanges 20-20' diagonally, as shown in Fig. 2 so that each stiffening flange 20 forms an obtuse angle with the web H5 or the stake 6, so as not to provide a shelf which would retain part of the lading and which allow the lading to freely discharge.

5 The accompanying drawing illustrates the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim: 1. A wall for a railway car comprising an upper chord, a lower chord, wall sheets each connecting said chords with a space between their adjacent vertical edges, each of said sheets having the intermediate portion thereof adjacent the exterior plane of said upper chord, the upper parts of said sheets sloping inwardly for attachment to said upper chord, and a stake secured to said upper chord on the outside of said wall sheets, said stake comprising a web, lateral sheet attaching flanges and lateral stiffening flanges, said stiifening flanges being of less width than said space so that the stake can be removed from the chords without disturbing the wall sheets, said stiffening flanges terminating and merging into said web a. substantial distance short of the chord so as to provide a freer discharge of the lading.

2. A wall for a railway car comprising an upper chord, a lower chord, wall sheets each connecting said chords, each of said sheets having the intermediate portion thereof adjacent the exterior plane of said upper chord, the upper parts of said sheets sloping inwardly for attachment to said upper chord, and a stake secured to said upper chord, said stake comprising a web projecting toward the interior of the car and provided with lateral stiifening flanges adjacent the inner margin of the stake, said stiffening flanges merging into said web so as to provide a freer discharge of the lading, each of said stifl'ening flanges forming an obtuse angle with the web of the stake so as to provide free discharge of the lading.

3. A wall for a railway car comprising an upper chord, a lower chord, wall sheets each connecting said chords, each of said sheets having the intermediate portion thereof adjacent the exterior plane of said upper chord, the upper parts of said sheets sloping inwardly for attachment to said upper chord, and a stake secured to said upper chord, said stake comprising a web projecting toward the interior of the car and provided with lateral stiffening flanges adjacent the inner margin of the stake, each of said stiffening flanges forming an obtuse angle with the web of the stake so as to provide free discharge of the lading.

GARTH G. GILPIN. 

